Escalator rail guard



y 1951' V o. FELIX ETAL 2,550,918

ESCALATOR RAIL GUARD Filed Sept. 27, 1946 L aye L. l-k crj Patented May1, 1 951 ESCALATOR RAIL GUARD Otto Felix, Chicago, 11]., George L.Meyers, Willoughby, Ohio, and Earl D. Boisselier, Glen Ellyn, Ill.,assignors to Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago, 111., a corporation of NewYork Application September 27, 1946, Serial No. 699,610

l 7 Our invention relates to guards for escalators and is particularlyconcerned with devices for preventing injury to careless individuals whokeep their hands on the travelling rail of an escalator after reachingthe end of the escalator path.

. It is not uncommon for small children when riding in an escalator tohold their hands on the.

rail after reaching the end of the trip, and out of childish curiosityto retain their hands on the rail down to the point where the raildisappears. Unless a suitable guard is arranged at this point the handmay be painfully pinched or even seriously injured.

It is accordingly necessary to provide a guard at this point which willpermit free passage of the rail in its normal travel, while effectivelypreventing admission for a foreign object, such as a persons hand.

The principal object of my invention, therefore, is to provide such aguard which will efiectively accomplish the purposes outlined and at thesame time will be inexpensive to fabricate.

A further object of my invention is to provide a guard of the typereferred to which will be formed of a material which is slightlyresilient,

but at the same time will provide sufficient resistance to preventadmission of foreign objects.

Still another object is to provide such a guard mounted loosely enoughto permit automatic self adjustment to variations in movement of therail, thus reducing friction and wear.

Various other objects and advantages will suggest themselves to thoseskilled in the art as the description proceeds.

Referring now to the drawings forming a part of this specification andillustrating a preferred embodiment of my invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a guard embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view,

partly in section, showing such a guard applied to an escalator railinstallation;

Fig. 3 is a front elevational view of the same;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of Fig.2; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of the inside of the guard.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on the line B6 of Fig. 3.

The numeral l0 represents a supporting plate provided with means forattaching it to a base II or other support, as for example screws l2 orthe like. The plate may be generally rectangular with a portion cut outas at I3, to provide a pas- 9 Claims. (Cl. 19816) sage for an escalatorrail M. The plate It] may also be deformed as at I5 to movably engage a"fiange ll of a guard l6.

The guard 16 is preferably formed of a thermol plastic and moldablematerial'such as rubber or a synthetic resin having the requisiteproperties. This guard should be flexible and resilient, but stiffenough so that it will not yield around the edges'more than a minorfraction of an inch from manual pressure when formed in the proportionsillustrated herein. As shown in Figs. 1-

and 4, the guard i6 is essentially in the form of a flattened orapproximately elliptical tube, a portion of one major side thereof beingcut out as at l8 to permit passage of the escalator rail.

It will be noted that the guard is loosely mounted in the plate l0, thuspermitting its limited movement to accommodate irregularities in therails movement and reducing wear.

The guard I6 is smooth on the outside thereof, but on the inside isprovided with waffle-like reinforcing ribs 22, crisscrossed in anysuitable formation so as to provide a sort of honeycomb configuration.While I have shown the ribs 22 in rectangular arrangement, they couldobviously be formed hexagonally, octagonally, or in a wide variety ofother designs. Thus, the ribs reinforce each other, so that the guard,while essentially a thin shell, is greatly stiffened against deformationfrom external pressure. At spaced intervals of the web formed by ribs 22are hollow bosses 25 seating pads 26 of felt or other low frictionmaterial which serve as bearing elements engaging the rail, thusreducing wear on the guard itself.

It will be seen that the free edge 23, which normally lies adjacent theescalator rail, while tapered sufliciently to permit a slight yielding,if a persons fingers should apply pressure to the outside thereof, isnevertheless stiff enough to offer substantial resistance against suchpressure. Thus, if a person, and especially a child, should attempt toinsert ones fingers between the guard and the moving rail, sufficientyielding resistance will be offered to prevent such admission. If,however, the fingers should be small enough to be admissible between theguard and rail, the guard will yield enough to avoid painfully pinchingthe fingers.

Various changes coming within the spirit of our invention may suggestthemselves to those skilled in the art, and hence we do not wish to belimited to the specific form shown or uses mentioned, except to theextent indicated in the appended claims, which are to be interpreted asbroadly as the state of the art will permit.

We claim:

1. A guard for an escalator rail comprising a supporting member adaptedto be attached to a fixed element, and an element carried by saidsupporting member adapted to embrace an escalator rail, said lastmentioned element being formed of stiff but yieldable material in theform of a molded shell having an integral interior honeycomb reinforcingweb.

2. An article as defined in claim 1, having a plurality of antifrictionbearing members disposed in said web, said bearing members normallyextending beyond the plane of said Web so as to be engageable with anescalator rail.

3. An article as defined in claim 1, having a plurality of hollow bossesformed integrally with said guard and relatively uniformly spaced on theinterior of said guard, and a plurality of bearing members having a lowfriction 'co-eifi-.

cient removably disposed in said bosses and normally extending a slightdistance beyond the surface of said web. 4. A guard for an escalatorrail comprising a member of substantially c-shaped cross-section andsubstantially elongated in the longitudinal direction of an escalatorrail, said guard having foraminous means on the interior thereof wherebythe exposed end portion of said guard will yield to a limited degreeinsuflicient to permit entrance of fingers or other foreign objectsbetween the guard and an escalator rail.

5. Aguard as defined in claim 4 having a plurality of spacedlow-friction bearing members sition of said guard in relation to saidrail.

7. An article as defined in claim 6, wherein said webs define cellswhich are open toward the escalator rail.

8. An article as'defined in claim 6, wherein the guard is flanged at theedges thereof so as to form a shell-like enclosure for said webs.

9. An article as defined in claim '7, wherein the guard is flanged atthe edges thereof so as to form a shell-like enclosure for said webs.

OTTO FELIX. GEORGE L. MEYERS. EARL D. BOISSELIER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,628,090 Weiss May 10, 19272,080,980 Fiedler May 18, 1931

